The present invention relates to a method of storing sheet-like products, in particular printed products such as newspapers, periodicals and the like. The sheet-like products are provided in a continuous stream, preferably in an imbricated formation. In the method of the present invention, a first section of the products is wound up to form a first roll and at least one further section of the products is wound up to form a further roll assigned to the first roll. In addition, the first section of the product is unwound from the first roll and the further section of the products is unwound from the further roll. The present invention also relates to an apparatus for implementing such a method.
An example of a method related to the present invention is described in EP-A-0 677 470. In that patent, a continuous imbricated stream of sheet-like products is first of all fed to an intermediate roll. As soon as the intermediate roll is fully wound, the continuous imbricated stream is directed to a main roll. Simultaneously, the products stored on the intermediate roll are unwound again from the intermediate roll and fed to a second main roll assigned to the first main roll. The two main rolls are thus wound simultaneously, one main roll-being supplied directly by the continuous imbricated stream and the other main roll being supplied by the intermediate roll.
Furthermore, according to the known method, during simultaneous unwinding of the products from the two main rolls, the product stream coming from one main roll is guided away directly for further processing. On the other hand, the product stream coming from the second main roll once again passes onto the intermediate roll and then, after the two main rolls are fully unwound, the product stream passes from the intermediate roll for the purpose of further processing.
The disadvantage with this known method is that some of the products have to be guided via the intermediate roll both during winding up and during unwinding. The intermediate storage of the products on the intermediate roll basically always gives rise to a change in orientation of the products. In other words, if the intermediate roll is fed products in the form of an imbricated stream with the back leading, then the products, during unwinding from the intermediate roll, are oriented such that the back is now trailing.
This, in turn, disadvantageously results in the products always being stored on the two main rolls with different orientation. As a result, identical orientation of all the products guided away from the main rolls during unwinding has to be produced again by further intermediate storage of the products on an intermediate roll.
An object of the present invention is to develop a method that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art method by achieving simplified winding up and unwinding of the products while using a plurality of mutually assigned rolls.